Process of preserving hams.



of Germany,

PAUL Joan, or HAMBURG, GERMANY.

PROCESS OF PRESERVING HAMS.

No Drawing.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PAUL JoRN, a citizen and resident of No. 101 Liibeckerstrasse, Hamburg, in the Empire of Germany, have invented a new and useful Process of Preserving Hams, of which the following is a specification.

In the treatment and preservation of hams, it is necessary to keep the hams tightly incased during cooking and processing, as well as during cooling. More particularly is it necessary to employ an elastic casing or. can, so that during the expansion of the ham while being cooked the casing will expand with it and an undue expression of fat and meat juice, caused will be prevented, and during the subsequent cooling and consequent contraction or shrinking of the ham the can will corre spondingly collapse and a loosening of the ham in the casing will be obviated.

According tovthe present invention, the hams, salted and boned in the ordinary manner, are each inserted, without being previously pressed and cooked and without any additional substance, such as water or gravy, in a flat tin or envelop which has substan tially the same shape as the ham, the cubical capacity of the said tin exceeding the volume of the ham by approximately 10 per cent, so as to allow for the expans on of the ham during its subsequent cooking. The cover is then hermetically secured to the tin, leaving the interior of the tin open to the atmosphere only through a vent hole in the cover or, preferably, in one of the side walls of the tin near the narrower. end. of the latter. The tin containing the ham is then placed in a vacuum chamber wherein the air is exhausted from the inside of the tin by way of the vent hole, and while the tin is still in oacuo the vent hole is hermetically sealed. The walls of the tin are so weak that when the vacuum chamber is opened, the inrushing air acting externally on the tin causes the said walls to collapse until they tightly fit and closely incase the ham. The difference between the cubic capacity of the tin in its original form and the volume of its contents is thus practically neutralized,

after the exhaustion of the air from the tin,

. bygthe collapse or bending inward of the walls under the atmospheric pressure bearing externally thereon. After the aforesaid exhaustion of the air from, and the hermetic closure of, the tin, which latter, as before Specification of Letters Patent.

by excessive pressure,

is to be read as including such other Patented Aug. 20, 1912.

Application filed March 12, 1912; Serial No. 683,305.

described, has collapsed around and against the ham inclosed therein, the said tin is inserted into a boiling vessel wherein it is processed in the usual manner until the ham is completely cooked and sterilized. During this cooking process the ham expands and forces the collapsed walls of the tin into their original form, thesaid walls being free and weak enough to yield under the pressure of the expanding ham without risk of bursting. While this part of the process is being carried out the ham is continuously under pressure so that an injurious expansion of the ham 1s prevented. By the elastic incasement of the ham every undue expression of fat and meat juice is avoided, and, moreover, a compactshape is secured for the ham, and the cavities produced by the removal of the bones are closed up, so that the ham appears as one homogeneous mass of meat.

After the completion of the cooking and processing, and during the subsequent cooling, the walls of the hermetically sealed tin again collapse in correspondence with the shrinkage or reduction in size ofthe ham which naturally takes place while the latter is cooling, the ham being thus kept tightly incased under pressure during cooking an processing, as well as during cooling and after the cooling process is completed.

The invention besides being applicable to the treatment and preservation of hams, as hereinbefore described, is also applicable to the treatment and preservation of other joints or sections of meat and for that reason it is to be understood that wherever, in this specification and the following claims, the context admits of it the word ham joints or sections of meat.

It has hereinbefore been mentioned that the vent hole is preferably formed in one of the side walls of the tin near the narrower end thereof; the reason for this preferred locale of the said vent hole is that the-leg end of the ham contained within the narrower end of the tin does not lie close to the wall 'ofthe latter and, there fore, has little or no' tendency to by suction against and, therefore, prematurely close to the vent hole.

I claim as my invention:

1. The improvement in the art of preserving or canning hams consisting in inserting the ordinarily salted and boned ham without being previously pressed and be drawn.

cooked and without any additional liquid, ina vented flat tin which conforms substantially to the shape of the ham, the cubical capacity of the said tin'excee'ding the volume of the ham by approximately per cent, hermetically sealing a cover tothe tin, exhausting the air from the interior of the tin through the vent hole and subform and finally cooling the tin and its contents, whereby the said walls are again caused to collapse in accordance with the shrinkage of the said contents.

2. The improvement in the art of pre-' serving or canning hams consisting in inserting the ordinarily salted and boned ham without being previously pressed and cooked and without any additional liquid in aflat tin which conforms substantially to the shape of the ham and has a vent hole in one of its side walls near its narrower end, hermetically sealing a cover to the tin, exhausting the air from the interior of the tin through the vent hole, sealing the said vent hole, processing the tin to cookand sterilize its contents, and finallycooling-the tin and its contents,- the walls of the sealed tin collapsing around and against the ham.

when exposed to unbalanced atmospheric pressure, expanding with the expanslon of the ham during the cooking process, and again collapsing around and against the ham during the cooling of the-latter;

3. Inthe-process of preserving or cannin meat, inserting the meat in an unpresse and uncooked condltion in a vented can whose cubical capacity exceeds the'volume of the meat by approximately 10 'per cent.-,

the walls of the can being sufiiciently weak to collapse under unbalanced external pressure and to expand under the pressure of -the expanding meat when cooked in the said can, exhausting the air from the can through the vent in the latter, hermetically sealing the vent, and subsequentlyprocess ing the can to cook and sterilize-the meat while hermetically inclosed within the can.

-In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name this 26th 'day of February 1912, in the presence of'two subscribing witnesses.

' Witnesses:

ERNE's'r H. L. MUMMENHOFF, IDA CHRIST. HAFERMANN.

PAUL JORN. 

